A Change of Plans

 Good Morning!

How are you this morning?  I've put the heat on and just poured my first cup of coffee.  It feels chilly (34 by my computer) and it still feels damp even though the skies cleared yesterday afternoon and it got very, very sunny.  Mabel kept me company most of the night.  She is a nudger if there ever was one.  Right up against my leg and pushing hard!  I almost feel a little stiff this morning, but I cherish her company at night.

Yesterday I mentioned that Dee and I might change our KAL plans and NOT knit Cascading Leaves socks.  The Turning Leaves yarn we are using by Less Traveled Yarn is so pretty...but busy...and better suited to a plain sock.  So...the yarn has spoken - or rather shouted a bit loudly.  Cascading Leaves has been ripped out and a plain vanilla sock shall be knit.  

Rather than "negative knit" down to the ribbing which would have taken me forever, I just ripped out the entire piece and I've now re-knit the 15 rows of ribbing for the cuff.  I'm using a peace symbol stitch marker hoping it will lend a sense of calmness to this project - LOL.

Since I now have two vanilla socks on the go (my Hollyberry socks are also plain vanilla), I may need something else that is not so plain!  I've been thinking about/toying with the idea of a rather large and colorful cowl.  Something like this:

It calls for 24 different yarns!  So far I've picked out a bunch (not 24, but I have a basketful of sock scraps waiting to be used for granny squares or something).  Here's what I've chosen so far:

The minis in the plastic bag at the top of the picture are a set that I bought at the very first Allentown Fiber Festival that I went to.  That was years and years ago.  Unfortunately that festival no longer exists.  The other minis are ones I bought at the NJ Festival this past September and the balance are just a few of my scraps.  Not sure when I will cast on for this, but I think it will be a fun project!

The other day Dee shared a picture of her Publix Pilgrims from back in the day.  That has prompted me to show you my little pilgrims...and a Tom Turkey!

These are candles!  My best guess is from sometime in the 50's.  My Mom always had them out on the buffet for Thanksgiving (and that's where they are now...but in my house).  It cracks me up that the turkey is as tall as the pilgrims and the poor little pilgrim girl seems to have a smudge on her face.  There was also a set of candles that were choir members (boys and girls) that my Mom always displayed at Christmas, but somehow they got lost over the years.

Time to pour another cup of coffee and get moving on my usual Thursday reports for work.  I need to get those finished and then I plan to make some wheat bread to go with homemade vegetable beef soup for dinner.  Have a wonderful Thursday!

Unraveled Wednesday 11/16/22

 Hello, Hello,

How are you?  Everything is drippy around here.  My we had some heavy rain yesterday afternoon and evening.  It sounded so nice when I went to bed!  And it is milder this a.m. -- 40 degrees as opposed to yesterday's 29.

The holiday luncheon yesterday was lovely.  Pomme Radnor where it was held is an "event venue" that has probably seen better days (the inside looked a little old), but the staff were wonderful and the food was tasty.  We were in an "outside" room (with plenty of heaters in the ceiling) for hors d'oeuvres (mini lobster rolls, mini steak sandwich eggrolls, spinach in puff pastry, a beautiful charcuterie board, coconut shrimp, etc., etc.).  There was a pond with a pair of beautiful swans swimming around just outside the room.  Lunch was served in a large banquet room upstairs - excellent short ribs, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, some carrots, Brussels sprouts, salads, breads, etc.  Desserts were buttlered afterwards - mini creme brulee, little brownies, etc., etc.  Really too much food.  

There were raffles for amazing gifts and everyone got a lovely gift bag which (as always) included the 2022 Swarovski ornament (we get these every year):

My ornaments from all the years are hanging in my kitchen windows where they catch the sun.  Simply beautiful!

Every year, rather than sending gifts to our clients/customers, my company makes a significant gift to the Make a Wish Foundation in honor of our clients.  This year a spokesperson from Make A Wish came and talked a little bit, but also a 15 or 16 year old girl who was the recipient of a wish several years ago.  It was pretty amazing to listen to her talk.

All in all, a lovely afternoon and I did not get home till after 3 p.m.!  Now it is Wednesday and time for an Unraveled Wednesday update.  As usual, I am linking up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers to talk making and reading.  Be sure to head over there and follow the links - inspiration abounds!!

Dee and I have decided to do a very unstructured Knit Along with the yarn we share ("Turning Leaves" by Less Traveled Yarn).  The pattern is Cascading Leaves (Rav Link).  Dee is further along than me.  This is where I am.

BUT, we are both kind of thinking that the pattern is not showing up so well with this yarn.  This yarn if gorgeous, but I have a feeling the pattern is better suited to a solid yarn.  Anyway...continuation is to be determined/discussed.  We may negative knit (love this term from Jane) and go with a simpler pattern.

Meanwhile, I decided I could not possible knit Cascading Leaves while meeting up with Dee.  It's a pattern I need to focus on and that doesn't happen when Dee and I get together - LOL.  Too much chatter and laughter and good times.  So, I decided a plain vanilla sock was in order.  Voila:

I'm using a Christmas yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners from a year (or 2 or 3) ago.  The colorway is "Hollyberry."  These may end up being a gift...not sure yet.  I also tend to knit on these for the 20 minutes or so after dinner when Fletch and I are listening to an audio book.

Speaking of books, reading has been good!  Fletch and I are still listening to Graceland, At Last by Margaret Renkl.  It is ok.  I enjoy her writing, but this book is much more political than I expected.  And, though we share similar beliefs and feel the same about the current condition of our Nation, I don't feel as though I need to read/hear about it ALL the time.  I enjoyed her earlier book Late Migrations much more.

On the pages side of thing, I have two finishes.  First up I read The Merchant's House by Kate Ellis.  I enjoy the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths and this book by Kate Ellis was billed as being one for those who like the Ruth Galloway series.  I found it to be ok (3 stars) - not riviting and a bit boring in places.  I may or may not read the next in the series...and if I do, it will not be for some time as I just picked up so many books at the library!

Next up I read Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow and loved it.  A multi-generational novel set primarily in the Civil Rights era, the characters are richly drawn.  The book is rough/hard in places...but so was (is) life.

I finished Memphis last night and started The Marriage Portrait when I got into bed.  I only read 20 pages or so (2 chapters) but am enjoying it so far.

And, that's a wrap for me.  Thanks for sticking around for a long blog post.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 11/15/22

 Good Morning All,

It's a chilly 29 degrees here this a.m. and the grass looks all frosty.  Guess it's time to harvest our Gilfeather Turnips (best to wait until after a frost to do that).

Yesterday's massage felt wonderful.  And in the afternoon I did manage to make the Cranberry Walnut Upside Down Cake!

Oh my!  So yummy.  The recipe I used is this one Cranberry Walnut Upside Down Cake - the only sub I made was using some orange zest rather than orange extract (which I don't have).  

The basket behind the cake is filled with garden greens - lettuce, chard and collards  - which we used in a salad for dinner last night.  Hard to believe we had a salad with greens, radishes and tomatoes from our garden on 11/14!  That was the last of our cherry tomatoes (the plants have all been pulled out now).  We still have some radishes in the frig and the greens are in a cold frame, so they may well still produce.

I do have some TNT updates to show you.  First up is that crazy long-legged bird.

He/She finally has the gathering basket in his/her mouth.  I like it!  This piece is not finished.  As usual, there is an alphabet to be stitched and a few motifs along the outer borders.

Next up we have the Praise Loudly, Blame Softly sampler.  

The band I am now working on is a repeat of one above, except upside down.  The acorn caps in this band were to be done in hollie point stitch, but it looked too messy and crowded to me, so I'm stitching them like the others.

Finally Ellen Harrison - only 12 years old when she stitched this sampler in 1889!

And a close-up:

Stitching with the lighter colors on this fabric is not easy on my eyes.  I had to rip out the second 8 twice before I had it placed correctly!

So, overall not a lot of progress, but steady progress which is ok.  The main thing is I am still enjoying these pieces (thank goodness!!).

Today I will be heading to the office.  I've got things to print (personal stuff) and some work to do and then things to overnight to Kevin.  We are also having our "holiday luncheon" today.  Pre-pandemic days you may remember that we had luncheons at the drop of a hat or for any occasion - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  With everyone still mainly working from home, those events have been cut back.  This year we are having just one lunch for the Fall/Winter holidays and it is today.  It is being held at Pomme Radnor which looks like a beautiful place.  

Here's hoping your Tuesday finds you enjoying life to the fullest.  It is amazing to see that we are halfway through November!  Take Care.

Sometimes Mondays...

 ...find you feeling much better!  Whew!  That Vertigo will throw you for a loop.  Not fun, Not pleasant.  I'm glad this latest episode is over and I'm glad to have my annual physical scheduled at the end of the month.  I know what vertigo is...I'd like to find out why I have started getting it (3 times in the past year) and what I can do to avoid it in the future.

We did manage to get our Shingles shot last Monday (the 2nd one) and neither of us had any reaction to it other than a sensitive arm.  The nurse at CVS did ask me if I was ok as I stumbled into the little room for shots.  I mentioned vertigo and her response was "Well, that sucks!"

OK, enough of the medical stuff.  How are you all?  I tried to read some blogs last week (mostly I just slept though), and will try to catch up today.  Fletcher's socks were finished last Saturday:

I do love the way they turned out, and Fletch likes them too.  He did mention that the cuffs were tighter than normal (I used 1.5 needles rather than 2).  That sent me on a hunt for sock blockers so I could soak (in Soak!) the socks and then block them out.  Of course I could not find my blockers...I was pretty sure they were in one of the chests where I keep yarn and I moved a lot of stuff looking for them, but no luck.  I soaked and stretched the socks and they dried better.  This past weekend I did a more thorough search and the sock blockers appeared!  Right where I thought they had been.

The last week did not see a whole lot of knitting or stitching accomplished, but I did cake up a bunch of yarn and thought about/dreamed of projects to be.  By the time Saturday rolled around and I was meeting up with Dee I had a multitude of projects swimming around in my head.  I'll show you Wednesday what I worked on that day.

In my dreaming and scheming I re-discovered a pile of yarn I had bought years (decades) ago - when I wasn't even knitting.  But the yarn was so pretty I had to buy it!  LOL  

Is this stuff even made these days?  It is very, very mohair-y.  I've been thinking of making Gossamer from the latest MDK Field Guide.  I started to swatch for that yesterday and then got distracted.  Ha!  In the course of finding that yarn I also discovered so much yarn I had forgotten that I had.  Yikes!!  Now I want to make ALL.THE.THINGS.  Anyway, that particular yarn (all 6 or 8 [I think] skeins) is now tucked back inside the chest with other yarns.

Saturday was warm enough that I didn't even wear a coat when I met up with Dee.  Sunday was another story - temps dropped a lot.  And this morning is quite chilly.  I'll be going out though as I managed to book a massage for 10 a.m. today!  WooHoo - it has been ages since I had a massage.

The weekend also saw me picking up 5 books from the library!  All the requests seem to come in at once, don't they?  And, if that is not enough, I received an email yesterday that "The Marriage Portrait" is waiting for me to pick it up.  That one really surprises me.  When I looked at my account on Thursday or Friday, I was still #85 in the queue for that book.  Two days later I receive word I can pick it up.  Go figure.  I'm not complaining as I was wondering if I would even get it in time to read for our discussion in early January.

How was your weekend?  Filled with good things, I hope.  I'll be back tomorrow with a tiny TNT update.

Sometimes Mondays....

 ... are just a bit off kilter.  Yesterday I woke up with vertigo.  Ugh!  We did manage to go out and drop off our ballots (Fletch drove), but that was it.  I spent all day in bed and then slept 8+ hours last night.  This morning I'm still a bit dizzy (not enough to merit taking a pill which would put me right back in bed).

Until a year ago I had never experienced vertigo (thankfully).  And, in the past year I've had 3 episodes.  

We are scheduled for our second shingles vaccines this morning and I'm hoping I can do a little stitching or knitting at some point today.  Right now though?  I think I'm going to go back to sleep for a little bit (even though I did not take a pill, I'm very, very sleepy).

Unraveled Wednesday 11/2/22

 Hello and Good Morning!

It's back to the early times for me.  I'm up and have sipped coffee and it is not yet 6:30.  It would have been so easy to roll over and go back to sleep, but for a change I did not.  I've got a bunch of things I should work on today, so I thought I'd best get up and at 'em!

I did manage to get out for a brief walk yesterday along the River Trail in Valley Forge.  I should have picked a different trail, as this one was very wet and muddy in places and covered with leaves.  Thus I was walking more carefully and rather gingerly at times and that ended up hurting my back.  But, because I was paying attention to where I was stepping and looking down ALL THE TIME, I spotted some tiny flowers blooming that I might have otherwise missed.

The river was moving along nicely and leaves were constantly falling!

Getting to the River Walk means driving past the chiropractor's office with the huge skeleton in the yard.  I laughed when I passed it:

He/She had been dressed for Halloween in a purple cloak long grey hair and a witches hat.  However, the recent wind and rain made her hat tumble off her head and fall on her chest.  A little disheveled looking!  And what knobby knees!!  LOL

Now it is Wednesday and time for some Unraveled news.  Linking up, as always, with Kat and others in the Merry Band of Unravelers to talk making and reading.  Two of my favorite things.  Both of which have been in limited quantities recently, unfortunately.  But, some progress was made on Fletch's 2nd sock.

I'm on the foot and about a third of the way through it.  I was working on this Saturday when I met up with Dee...finishing the heel flap, turning the heel and picking up the gussett stitches.  Then I promptly forgot all about the decrease rows.  Ha!  A little tinking occurred (just one row, fortunately) and I got back on track.  I really hope I finish this sock this week.  I'm itching to start something new and I won't allow myself to until this is finished.

Reading has slowed also.  I'm no longer reading "Graceland, At Last" by Margaret Rinkl.  Instead I downloaded it from Audible and Fletch and I are enjoying it after dinner.  (We got a little tired of the LeVar Burton podcast.)

"Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke has become a bit tiresome for me.  I'm maybe a third of the way through, but I doubt I will finish it.  While at the library I had picked up "Frog Music" by Emma Donoghue, but I can't seem to get into that.  I also picked up "The Merchant's House" by Kate Ellis, so I may give that a try.

Yesterday afternoon we booked our AirBnB in Austin for the Christmas holiday!  Excited!!!  And, the one we booked is only a 7 minute walk or so to Colin & Mailing's apartment.  Now we need to book flights.  And, our Thanksgiving plans are changing and evolving.  We may be having Thanksgiving here at our house for the first time in years!  Originally we were all going to meet up at Bonny & Zhongren's, but now Bonny is in (or going to be in) China for a month and will not be home for Thanksgiving.  I'm sure everything will work out eventually!

Meanwhile, time to pour another cup of coffee and wake Fletch.  Happy Hump Day!

Tiny Needle Tuesday

 Good Morning My Friends,

This first day of November finds me having overslept again!  In my defense, I was up until around midnight (usually I'm in bed by 10 p.m.) - we had a nice long chat with Colin last night and I also talked with my friend Leslie.  The hours slipped by, and then I needed to unwind a bit after all that chatter.  Anyway, it was a lovely evening.

We had no trick or treaters last night.  It started raining right around 6 p.m. and continued all evening - at times quite heavy.  But the morning was fairly nice and I (FINALLY!!!) got out for a walk.  I chose to walk the trail alongside the canal - one of my favorites.  I saw no turtles or herons, but there was still plenty of beauty around me.

Many of the trees alongside the path had lost their leaves, but there was still some brilliant color to be seen.  Also interesting fungi - almost like polka dots!!

And here's a picture of a house on the other side of the canal.  Just one of the many homes that I like so much.  I wouldn't necessarily like to live there (hello fear of flooding and hello fear of bugs in the dead of summer), I just think it's such a pretty home.

I may try to get out and walk again this afternoon - either the River Walk in Valley Forge Park or the path in Oaks that goes along the Perkiomen Creek.

But, here we are on a Tuesday morning and it's time to check in on TNT progress.  Nothing was done on the "Praise Loudly Blame Softly" sampler.  I never ever took it out all week!  But, that funny bird with the long legs now has the vine around it completed.  Next will be the basket (title of the piece is "Gathering Basket."

A fun piece!  And, Ellen Harrison now has the border under her name completed across the width of the piece and I stitched the word "aged" next to her name.  

You may need to click to enlarge to you can actually see the letters.  Stay tuned for next week when it will be revealed how old Ellen Harrison was when she stitched this sampler.  Quite a bit younger than me!

Well, I'd best be off to do a few things.  We will be going grocery shopping in a bit and I'd like to have some sense of what I'll be cooking this week before we go.  First up will be looking at recipes!

Have a great Tuesday and I plan to be back here tomorrow for Unraveled Wednesday!